There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job

by Kikuko Tsumura

Yet morning dawns, even on nights filled with thoughts as dark as yesterday’s.

Looking up at the windows framed in their yellow curtains of an almost eerie radiance, it occurred to me that maybe the problem wasn’t how little I knew my neighbourhood. Maybe it was that my neighbourhood was morphing into a place I didn’t know.

found the thought of doing a different job anxiety-inducing, but so long as it meant being liberated from my current one, I felt certain I could bear it.

Nobody’s life was untouched by loneliness; it was just a question of whether or not you were able to accept that loneliness for what it was. Put another way, everyone was lonely, and it was up to them whether they chose to bury that loneliness through relationships with other people, and if so, of what sort of intensity and depth.

There are pitfalls like that everywhere, lying in wait to trip you up. The more feeling you put into your work or whatever it is you’re devoting yourself to, the more of them there are.